VAT numbers that open and close are increasingly under the scrutiny of the Tax Authorities. Not only to combat evasion but also to prevent chain illicit phenomena ranging from fraud to money laundering. The very strong synergy between the Guardia di Finanza and the Revenue Agency is increasingly focusing on preventive intelligence through the work of Uipar (permanent integrated unit for risk analysis). A task force that allows defining strategies and directions along which investigative activity is to be carried out. A strategic work that is leading to significant numbers: in just under a year and a half (from January 2025 to May 2026), the Fiamme Gialle have submitted 5,500 proposals to the Revenue Agency for the closure of higher-risk VAT numbers.
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Actions taken
Still on the numbers, the Guardia di Finanza has developed increasingly targeted operations: in 2025 alone – as also reported by the Court of Auditors in its report on the State’s general accounts – 11,266 judicial police investigations were concluded and asset seizures for tax crimes were carried out for a total value of 3.4 billion euros. Results stemming from a deep understanding of the phenomenon.
Timeliness objective
The open-and-close VAT numbers, in fact, are designed to have a life cycle of 1 or 2 years, but there have been cases lasting just a few months. In this way, they try to evade controls both during the period they are operational and when they have ceased activity, leaving a pile of unfulfilled tax and contribution obligations and, above all, unpaid taxes and contributions.
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Intervention on multiple fronts
This knowledge is at the heart of the strategy that the Guardia di Finanza is implementing, which is aimed at acting ever more promptly and also at blocking related illicit activities different from those of a strictly tax nature. First and foremost, the phenomenon of money laundering which, in recent cases of operations carried out (see the other article on the page), is increasingly bringing to light underground banking systems (ghost banks): amounts generated through false invoices are diverted to foreign accounts and then returned (purified of a sort of commission for the illicit act) in cash to the beneficiary of the fraud.
The double direction
From this framework, the strategy of the Fiamme Gialle focuses on a double direction. On the one hand, targeted and selective controls on thousands of newly assigned VAT numbers to verify whether they are actually operational or not. In the second case, a kind of “rapid intervention” is triggered to prevent false invoicing. Help in identifying operational targets comes, as anticipated, from risk analyses elaborated by special departments and are primarily directed towards those with a higher fiscal risk index. On the other hand, the strategy hinges on inspections and judicial police investigations against subjects involved in tax frauds precisely to “break” the fraud circuits. When elements emerge that support the absence of conditions for applying VAT and indices of systematic and serious non-compliance with tax obligations, the Fiamme Gialle departments send a proposal to the Revenue Agency offices for the cessation of the VAT number and/or exclusion from the Vies database, which identifies those who carry out intra-community operations.
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